City and Community Leaders Speak on Milwaukee Violence Prevention

A staggering number of shootings in Milwaukee happened over the weekend. Five separate shootings on Sunday alone leaving two people dead.

Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee County District Attorney, and community leaders all agree that working alongside Milwaukee police is the only hope they have to prevent seeing a rash of violence like last years.

“Very very angry to see to me to see what is going on often times its people who know each other who obviously are unable to solve their problems without resorting to violence,” says Mayor Barrett.

According to MPD data, there have been 133 nonfatal shooting involving a fire arm and 23 homicides involving a firearm just this year. Compared to last year’s statistics we are basically on the same page.

“We have had the impact of increased accessibility to guns because of changes in the law, we have seen dramatic changes in the landscape to drug distribution with the heroin epidemic taking place, and you can’t ignore the deep impact of the of the economy for the last 5 or six years “, says John Chisholm Milwaukee County District Attorney.

Chisholm says those are the main factors the affect violent crimes involving firearms, and what needs to be done involves community effort.

“We have to do more than simply prosecute our way out of these problems we have to get to some of these underlying issues, and those under lying issues can only be addressed right in the community itself”, says Chisholm.

Pastor Richard Schwoelger knows the importance of working within communities to reduce violence with a city chaplain program.

“It’s the philosophy of we can change one family, if we can change one individual we will change that person’s family and then we can start changing generations”, says Schwoelger.